Western Pennsylvanian Railroads

Monongahela Connecting RailRoad

by Carsten S. Lundsten

Updated 2008-02-03

This is an unofficial Monongahela
Connecting Railroad railfan page.
This page has no affiliation with the Monongahela Connecting Railroad,
LTV Steel, the Allegheny Valley Railroad or Carload Express Inc. Since
2003 the Monongahela Connecting Railroad has been part of the Allegheny
Valley Railroad, who's official website (by owner Carload Express Inc)
is here.

The former
Monongahela Connecting RailRoad ("The MonCon") is a 2-3 mile industrial
railroad
located
near Downtown Pittsburgh. While I stayed in Pittsburgh from 1999 to
2000, the
MonCon was owned by LTV Steel. After the LTV Steel bankrupcy the MonCon
in 2003 became part of the Allegheny
Valley Railroad (AVR). In its
heydays the MonCon was the in-plant railroad of the Jones &
Laughlin Steel Works, located on both sides of the Monongahela River in
the Oakland/South Side neighborhoods.

The former MonCon served only one
customer, Metaltech, delivering steel coils a few times a
week.

The MonCon interchanged at its southern end with the CSX at Glenwood
Yard, Metaltech is located at the northern end of the line. A little
locomotive
rebuilding company, Damien-Hanz, was located at the southern end of the
MonCon.

While in Pittsburgh, my office window at Union Switch & Signal
was
only about 50' from the MonCon tracks. Even so, it took months before I
saw the MonCon operate - I later found out that they prefered
to operate in the very early morning (around 6) and also often in
weekends.

The former MonCon is now served by an AVR yard job from Glenwood
Yard every night, Sunday through Friday. The track has been rebuilt
from it's very worn out condition so the many derailments are now a
thing of the past. Unfortunately I have not been able to railfan the
former MonCon
after year 2000 and thus not while being served by the AVR.

My first look at the operating MonCon was this. The four
loaded coil
cars were derailed and now the two locomotives are trying to re-rail
the
train. This photo was shot right outside my office window.

One rail had flipped over and the MonCon crew had blocks
placed to allow the cars to be pulled up on the rails again.

Re-railing the train wasn't
easy. The rail that had flipped over
kept
giving in as the wheels landed on the rail head. Eventually they
succeded
but there's no doubt that the MonCon people had preferred less
spectators...

The two locos pulling hard; number 1001 keeps loosing its
grip on the
rails.

On January 31st, year 2000, I
drove by the Hazelwood area and found the MonCon sitting with 4 coil
cars. I grabbed this shot through the fence and went to Metaltech
to wait for him.

Here he's pulling cars out of
Metaltech after them being unloaded.

The MonCon ends just before
the Birmingham Bridge. A little
stub track towards the river
holds the rest of the train while cars are being delivered to
Metaltech,
two at a time.

The switch to the stub track.
And in the background the "Hot Metal Bridge" that used to provide rail
connection between the two halves of the Jones and Laughlin mill that
the MonCon used to serve.

Another winter day at
Metaltech, in mid February 2000.

Another early morning. The
MonCon train is getting ready to pull back
"home"
after delivering steel to Metaltech.

Same train. The bridge in the
background is the "Hot Metal
Bridge"
where in its heydays the MonCon used to haul molten steel across from
the
J&L blast furnaces here to the foundry on the South Side. The Hot
Metal
Bridge has recently been converted into a road bridge.

Well - maybe it was unfair to
start these pictures with a
derailment.
I don't know for sure if this is another one but this late spring day
(in
2000) the MonCon
sat
at Metaltech with one of the pickup trucks and people working on the
track
in front of it. Meanwhile trucks with coil deliveries had to try to
make their way
around
the train... Since then the track has been rebuilt and derailments are
now a rare event.